


Red

by The_Falling_Star



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, Gaster Blaster Sans (Undertale), Gen, Other, Reader is Frisk (Undertale), Reader is visually impaired, Underfell Sans (Undertale)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-30
Updated: 2020-11-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:22:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27803740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Falling_Star/pseuds/The_Falling_Star
Summary: Your mother told you to never leave your home at night, for once the sun set, the forest became the dominion of the monsters.
Relationships: Frisk & Sans (Undertale), Frisk/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 60
Collections: Gaster's Followers November 2020





	Red

At night, the mountain and the forest surrounding it belonged to the monsters.

Your mother had told you of the pact humans had forged with them long ago. She forbid you from entering the forest, even at midday. It was too dangerous, your condition “too delicate” to risk such a thing. You were permitted to fetch water, and logs for the fireplace the kindly woodcutter stacked next to your cottage, but little else and never at night. These four walls were nearly all you knew, a prison that you could escape once a day.

Or at least, it was, until this morning.

When you found your mother’s cold body lying in her bed.

You gathered your cloak from its hook by the door, slinging it around your shoulders and pulling the hood up over your head. It was a vibrant scarlet, always easily spotted against the drab interior of your cottage, made of heavy wool to keep the late-autumn chill out. Beside it was your trusty walking stick, your fingers curling around familiar grooves in the pale wood. You were so accustomed to it, the weight, the length, even the slight flex and give, it felt more an extension of your body than inanimate wood. This stick was your eyes, your tool to navigate the world. With it in hand, you walked out of your cottage for the last time.

The sun was setting, dappling the world in shimmering, fluctuating shades of gold, a slight breeze rustling a scant few leaves that must still be clinging to the trees, carrying scents of decay and the promise of frost. It would be night very quickly, winter just a few weeks away and the sun fading earlier every evening. But you supposed that it was perfect timing. The door at the mountain would only open when the golden light was dead.

You closed the front door to your cottage behind you, pressing one hand against the frame to orient yourself before you began walking forward. Your stick was cast in a sweeping arc before you, your ears listening and your fingers pressed tightly to the wood. It made a particular sound and vibration when skimming over the path that ran from your house, the noise varied from the sound of untrodden dirt or leaves or grass. You swept it back the other way, listening, feeling, sensing the earth. You began to walk forward along the path, your stick cast back and forth, back and forth, a steady tempo as you set out.

The world was duller in the late season, the dying light the sole source of color. Muted browns of dead grass, bark, soil and rotting leaves were a muddy mess of nearly uniform hue. Without this path and your stick to navigate it, you would be completely helpless. Your red cloak, a pale stick, or a bright orange canopy against azure sky you could distinguish, but shapes and outlines were lost to you, all of it a blur your eyes could not perceive. 

You did not fret. This path was one you’d taken countless times. Your feet knew the way.

The sunlight shifted, angle dipping ever lower, painting the woodlands in oranges, soon to be dusky purples, dimming until you could barely make out where the dark forest ahead ended and sky began. Before long, you wouldn’t be able to see anything. Still, you did not worry.

There was a hollow ‘thud’ that rang out, a shockwave running up your arm as your stick collided with stone brick. This must be the old well from which you gathered water. It was the demarcation between the land of humans, and the realm of monsters. To step beyond it when twilight ended was to forfeit your soul.

You navigated around it, and continued down the path.

Sunbeams slanted sideways through the thickening trees, the sun sinking into the horizon. Your eyes were barely open, useless as they were to you now, drifting shut as you put all your focus into the sensations felt by your stick, and the sounds reaching your ears.

Like dead leaves crunching underfoot. 

You froze, going stock still, your breathing seizing in your chest, ears sharp and alert. To your right, another footstep, a slight rustle...

Was it a wolf?

As quietly as you could, you choked up your grip on the stick, ready to swing it at an approaching predator. Wolves were uncommon in these woods, but not unheard of. 

Another crunch. This time off to your left. Was there more than one? A pack?

Behind you, the snapping of a twig, something big, something getting closer...

“human...” came a deep, sonorous voice, like that of a boulder crunching down a mountainside, “don’t you know what happens to your kind at night?”

You whirled around, eyes flying wide. Before you was a massive creature, something large and pale, towering over you. As it stepped closer you could pick out the sound of a four-legged gait. A massive white shape took up almost all of your limited sight, dominated by two black pits and within them, blurry red lights, like the smoldering embers of a dying fire in a hearth.

It was a monster.

You sighed, shoulders relaxing as you realized it was no wolf, but a creature far more powerful. And one not yet permitted to touch you.

“Hello.” you greeted, before turning back around, readjusting your grip on your stick, and continuing down the path towards the mountain.

Suddenly the monster re-appeared before you, and you didn’t realize before your stick bumped into its foreleg with a hollow sound. How did it soundlessly move so fast?

“Oh, excuse me.” you said, politely. 

“you’re excused.” the monster replied, snidely.

“...Can you please move? I need to get to the mountain at sunset.”

“running a little short on time there, darlin’.” the monster drawled, the white shape shifting, you assumed facing towards the setting sun. 

“Yes. I know. So if you would move, please.” you said, a little more insistently. 

The beast lay down across the path, crossing one foreleg over the other, his large head resting atop them. He hummed a low, rumbling, contemplative note before parting his maw, “how about no.”

You huffed in frustration, walking closer to the large monster, Uncomfortably close, you had to just to see his eyes, or what you assumed were eyes. Inches from his face you could make out that he actually had gaping eye sockets and red rings of lights that glowed within them.

“You are not allowed to attack a human during the daytime. The monster-human pact forbids it. The sun-” you pointed your stick west, “-is still up so stop obstructing my way and let. Me. Pass.” you said firmly, brimming with determination.

The monster was undeterred, “i’m not attacking you, kid,” he replied, grinning wide with sharp rows of teeth, and you swore you saw a glint of gold in the dim light, “and if you’re headed to the mountain, that means you’ll be out here at night. and _that_ means-” those red embers snuffed out, “- **your soul is as good as mine.** ”

You frowned, altering the hold on your stick and doing your best to navigate around the monster. You got about five steps around him when something caught your foot and you tripped, toppling forward, your red cloak fluttering.

“You just attacked me!” you accused, dusting yourself off and with the aid of your stick, working your way back to your feet.

“i just stuck my tail out, it’s not my fault if you go walking into it. what are you, blind?” he retorted with a snort.

“Yes!!”

“....oh. well that explains things.” you heard him shifting, moving back in front of you, and blocking your way again, “you probably don’t understand just what you're dealing with, so here,” something pressed into your hands, something solid and warm, hot breath ticking over your skin, “take a look.”

You frowned, but your fingers started exploring. “You have a really big nose.”

“snout.” he corrected. As his mouth moved you felt a hard ridge, and under that long, sharp, dagger-like fangs.

“And really large teeth.” Your hands trailed further upwards your puzzlement grew. The shape of his head was strange, animalistic. But there was no fur or skin or scales. It felt like bone.

“Is this your skull?” you asked, skimming over what seemed to be horns.

He made a deep noise that you may have called a growl, but it was less threatening, softer. A purr? 

“mmn, you could say that darlin’. you figure it out yet, or you need to do some more exploring?”

Your hands fell away, “You’re a skeleton monster.” They were rare, powerful, and ancient. Draconic-shaped creatures made entirely of magic and bones that could blast down forests if they so desired.

“that i am.” he said smugly, before his tone grew cold and threatening, “so how come you aren’t running away screaming like any human with a lick of common sense?”

“I told you, I have to get to the mountain. Even if you are a skeleton monster, you’re still a _monster_ , and you have to obey the pact. Now if you’ll excuse me...” you swung your stick back and forth again, trying to find the path again. When you tripped you lost your orientation, and all you could feel was underbrush. 

“heh, the little human has a death wish. how about this, kid; i’ll walk you to the mountain, and when we get there, i take your soul. sound like a deal?”

“I can’t see where you’re leading me, so you could just be tricking me off the path.”

“the path that’s on your left?” he asked lightly, and you tapped with your stick, feeling that the trail was indeed where he said it was. “i promise to take you there. and i keep my promises.”

“You can have my soul when I’m done with it, and not a moment sooner.” you said defiantly, and he let out an amused chuckle at that. You felt his heavy footsteps and he moved again, coming up beside you. His snout pressed under your free hand, lifting it and allowing it to trail along his vertebrae, over his side until it rested on his shoulder blade that was nearly level with your head. He was a massive creature. 

“c’mon darlin’, the setting sun won’t slow down for the likes of you.”

He led you along, though you kept checking with your stick that you were in fact still walking the correct direction. Your steps had to be quick to keep up with his longer strides. 

“what are you even doing out here? you know what’s going to happen to you, so why did you come out all this way?” he asked curiously after a few minutes of walking.

“I’m meeting my grandmother.”

“...your grandmother. at the mountain where monsters live.” he deadpanned, “does your auntie live in a lake?”

His mockery did not deter you, “I visit her every day, she invited me.”

“there aren’t any humans that live out here, so I don’t know who you think you’re fooling with this granny nonsense-”

“She lives beyond the door of the mountain!” you insisted talking over him, “We speak when I go to gather water, she tells me jokes and offered me a home with her in the ruins, just as long as I go to the door at sunset.” your expression grew slightly more melancholic, “I know she’s not my _real_ family, but she offered to be.”

There was a pause, then a rumbling laugh, “you’re saying the queen of all monsters invited a human to live with her? ha!”

“She’s the Queen?” you replied, confused. She’d never mentioned that.

“of course, darlin’. you think she is going to just let you into the underground?” he said with a dark chuckle, “you got jokes, kid. where’s your real family? i’m sure they wouldn’t be happy to find out you became monster chow.”

“They’re dead. My mother passed this morning.” you said with a hollow voice. 

He stopped, and you nearly tripped again at his sudden halting.

“...kid, were you planning on joining them?”

You shook your head, unwavering, “No, I’m planning on joining _you._ ”

You could not read his expression, the light too dim, his skull too distant, but he was very quiet for a time.

“what’s your name, kid?” he finally asked.

“Everyone calls me Red.”

He barked a rough laugh, “heh heh, that’s what they call me. we can’t both be red.” he hooked a large claw around the edge of your hood, nearly touching your face and pulling it down to reveal your head to the cold evening air. The glow of his crimson eyelights were on you, visible through the murky darkness. “what is your name, human? i’m sans.” he offered.

“Frisk.” you answered.

“frisk...” he repeated slowly, like he was tasting the name, “well, frisk, let’s get you to this granny of yours. we’re nearly there.” he said in a sinister growl. 

Only the vestiges of light clung now, darkness almost completely blanketing the land. In your mind’s eye but a sliver of the golden sun remained over the horizon, the forest cast into twilight. 

You felt the rise of the earth, the path cresting and the mountainside looming closer until, finally, you reached the door. In daylight you could see it, large, covered in ornate carvings and a rich purple in color. In darkness you couldn’t differentiate it from the rock face. 

You lifted your hand from his shoulder, using your stick to navigate those last few feet to the door, knowing you’d reached it when your stick made a familiar tap against the portal. You raised a fist, and full of determination, you knocked upon the door.

The sound echoed, followed by silence.

The sun set.

“well, well, well...” Sans rumbled, one paw, made of bone and sharp claws like an eagle's talons lifted, rising level with your chest. A thrumming came from inside you, from the core of your being, “looks like that soul is **mine**!”

Just then the door groaned open, and revealed on the other side was a tall, white figure cloaked in purple.

“Oh, Frisk!” she sighed breathlessly, her voice familiar yet watery, “It truly is you, my child!”

“Grandmother...” you said, never before so happy to hear the warm tones of the elderly monster’s voice. She rushed forward, gathering you up in a firm hug, her soft furry arms wrapped around you, warm and comforting and smelling faintly of cinnamon. 

It felt like Home.

“well i’ll be damned.” Sans whispered, shocked.

“Oh, Sans dear.” she sniffed, wiping at her eyes, “I didn’t see you there.” you nearly giggled, Sans was surely very hard to miss, “Did you bring Frisk? Thank you so much for the escort, they do have trouble seeing.”

“of course, ma’am.” he said, only slightly sheepishly. 

“Perhaps you will join us for tea? We have so much to discuss.” she offered. You heard shifting bones and saw a slight movement of white that may have been a shrug.

“sure. i can spare some time for a little chat.” you caught a glinting of gold again, “after all, my plans for tonight just cleared up.”

Your grandmother ushered you through the doorway, into the mountain. Into another world, leaving the realm of humans behind.

Where you would live out your days in the Underground, happily ever after.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the [Gaster’s Followers Discord server’s](https://fallingstarstuff.tumblr.com/post/639586244700127232/gasters-followers-discord-server) November challenge (cutting it just a _little_ close) for the fairy tales prompt. This fic was loosely based on Red Riding Hood.
> 
> [Tumblr](https://fallingstarstuff.tumblr.com/).
> 
> 💙 Stay safe, and stay DETERMINED. ❤️


End file.
